Beyond the Sea
by pandorabox82
Summary: Aaron and Jack are starting their new lives in Albuquerque, only for him to find out that there are some ghosts from the past that refuse to remain buried.


"What the fuck are you playing at Marshall?"

Aaron looked out the door of the room he and Jack were in, over at the woman who was going to be his handler while he was in WitSec. She looked absolutely furious, and Director Mann was still cool, nonplussed, it seemed, at her anger. "Doctor Hanssen wanted to meet Erin before she came over, presumably to make certain their stories checked out. This was the only time he had in his schedule, as apparently there's a small crisis happening at the hospital, and he needs to get back."

"And you didn't think to clear this with her handler? Especially when you knew I was briefing Aaron and Jack today?"

He felt his brow furrow in confusion, trying to figure out what the problem was with him meeting another member in the program. Albuquerque was a large enough city that he probably would even cross paths with the person ever again. But they were both acting like he knew her.

"Dad? Can we go home anytime soon? I don't like it here."

Aaron looked down at his son, frowning deeply. "I wish that we could, but until the team has caught Mister Scratch, this is home."

A sudden flurry of motion caught his attention, and Aaron looked up in time to see Mary Shannon burst through Director Mann's office door, slamming it behind her. He knew enough to get up and close the door to the room they were in, not wanting to draw attention to them just then. "Why's Mary so mad?"

"I think she'd had a spanner thrown into her plans," he replied absently as he looked towards the elevators. They opened, revealing a tall, thin, quintessentially English, man and he knew that that had to be the Doctor Hanssen that Director Mann had spoken of. The man paused in front of Mary's desk, speaking with her lowly before disappearing into the director's office.

"Who was that?"

He looked at his son and smiled at him. "That was Doctor Hanssen, I presume. He's the reason Mary is so mad."

"He looks harmless enough. Wonder why he's here?"

"To meet Erin." The moment he spoke her name, he knew. He just knew they were talking about Erin Strauss. It was the only plausible reason for Mary to be so upset that he was meeting, even in passing, another member of the program.

"Dad? Is everything okay?"

Aaron smiled as he nodded, needing to reassure both Jack and himself. "Everything will be fine," he said lowly, trying to think of something to keep Jack occupied for when Erin entered. He knew his son would have questions he couldn't answer, and that wasn't fair to him. "Why don't you write a letter to Aunt Jessica while I speak to Mary for a moment?"

Jack nodded, giving him a suspicious look, as if he knew Aaron wasn't being completely honest. Still, it would do him no good to know the truth at this point, so he just got up from the table and left the room. Mary grunted as he came to a stop in front of her desk, and he took that as a sign to sit down. "Don't even ask, Aaron. I can't tell you."

"Then let me tell you a story, and you can tell me if I'm in the right ballpark." She looked up from her paperwork and fixed her blue eyes on him, the stare scarily reminding him of Erin in that moment. Taking a deep breath, he tried to sort his thoughts into some semblance of order before speaking. "Almost four years ago, on the streets of New York City, my former Section Chief was poisoned by John Curtis. I thought that I felt her die in my arms, but something that I never took notice of was the fact that the infinity scar on her wrist was still bleeding when Dave went to see her body in the morgue. There was no Y-incision performed. These were clues that I ignored in my need to find the Replicator and bring him down. Now, faced with my own time in WitSec, I begin to see that perhaps she was starting over, finding a new path in life. And that led her here, as far away from DC as one can get and still be in the program. And now, she's finding life a bit dull and predictable, since she can't do what truly made her happy, and if I know Erin at all, that will have made her miserable.

"So you found a way to get her doing something she loves once more, involving this Doctor Hanssen, and moving out of country, most likely England, based on the look of the man. You might take a profiler out of the BAU, but you can't take it out of the man. But my being here throws a kink into Director Mann's plan, since if we see each other, that compromises the confidentiality of the program, since we knew each other, before. Am I anywhere near the mark?"

Mary's glare intensified as she leaned back in her chair, regarding him carefully. "You know that I can't agree with any of that. But if we were to move into the world of fiction, well, you told a pretty good tale that might just hold water in real life."

He nodded and went to get up, only for the elevator doors to open once more. Both their gazes were drawn to it, and he swallowed thickly to watch a ghost from his past step off it. Erin had put on a little weight in the few years since he'd seen her last, and her hair was a little longer. But the most striking difference was the happiness on her face. He hadn't seen that look since JJ's wedding, and it was absolutely lovely on her.

Her step faltered as she finally recognized who was sitting across the desk from Mary. Shock was written all over her features, and he was sorry to see her smile fade away. "What is going on here?"

That was different, too, the slightly posh accent, vaguely British in the sense that all fake British accents sounded, and he cocked his head to one side before gesturing to the seat next to him. Erin sat primly, folding her hands in her lap as she focused her gaze on him. It no longer made him squirm, surprisingly enough, and he regarded her steadily. "I have had to join the program, along with Jack."

"The BAU is cursed, that makes three members who have had to be part of the program. Are you settling down here, then?"

"Yes, as a lawyer. Nothing glamorous, I won't see any trials, but I'll still be putting my degree to use." She gave him a small smile, and they both ignored Mary's huff of impatience as she pushed away from her desk and stalked over to Director Mann's office. "What about you? Moving away, beyond the sea?"

"Something like that. I felt stifled here, since I couldn't use my doctorate to its full potential. Then, an opening happened at Holby City, and Clyde Easter pulled some strings to get me considered, even with my severely compromised CV." Another warm smile curved her lips upwards, and he found himself wishing that he had taken time to really get to know her outside of the BAU. "The staff seems lovely, I've been reading up on them in preparation for the job, and I will truly enjoy being there. As Erin Brooks."

"I'm sorry?"

She shrugged a little. "I failed your wife, Aaron. This is my small way of honoring her memory and reminding myself that we can always do better."

Aaron reached out and grabbed hold of her hand, squeezing it tightly, unable to find the right words to say to her. "Ms. Brooks, is it?" Aaron looked up at the same time as Erin, seeing that Doctor Hanssen had come up to their sides at some point during their conversation. Erin nodded as she stood, smoothing her blouse a little in an obvious tell of her nerves. "I'm Henrik Hanssen, CEO of Holby City Hospital. Director Mann has said that we should meet in his office, so that Ms. Shannon can talk with her other responsibilities."

The man nodded at him, a tiny smile curving his lips upwards as he reached out and cupped Erin's elbow, guiding her over to the office. She turned her head back to give him one last smile, and he returned the expression, knowing that they would most likely never meet again. He had a million questions to ask of her, to find out about her, but it was like everything in life, sometimes there was no pat answer, no way to sum up the total of a life, sometime a relationship just ended.

Mary came up to his side, looking less angry now that Erin and Doctor Hanssen were safely ensconced in Director Mann's office. "All right, it's time to get you and Jack briefed on your new lives. Jack having been in the program before makes things a little easier, but I have the feeling that you are going to cause me a migraine a day until you can finally be released back into your real life."

He laughed at that, feeling freer than he had in years. Mary shook her head, giving him a disgusted look, which only seemed to increase his mirth. "It's not you, it's realizing that there really are stranger things on Earth. That someone I had once thought dead is actually headed beyond the sea, to probably never be heard from again, and there's not a person back in my real life that I can tell about her resurrection. And I think that she wants it that way. I think that she would rather not be known by us all, which should hurt, but makes complete sense. We didn't treat her well, even after she had obviously tried to change, so why would she want to be a part of our lives again? Maybe it is better that way. A clean start in a new country, with no expectations to live up to."

"Exactly! Use her example as a touchstone for your new lives here in New Mexico. It would serve you well to remember that those who forget what they left behind are the ones who truly do well in the program. Erin Brooks excelled in the program."

He took the admonishment for what it was, nodding as they made their way into the conference room, where Jack was still writing letters. He looked up and gave them a dark look before bending back over the paper. "Took you long enough."

"There were mitigating circumstances," he responded as he took a seat next to his son, waiting for Mary to get on with introducing them into the program, hoping that their own new life would be something that made him as happy as Erin's new life was making her.


End file.
